Bonus Gallery: Top Picks From Street Car Takeover at zMax!

Street Car Takeover is a roaming race designed to separate those run-what-ya-brung racecars, from truly fast streets cars. We attended the Charlotte event held July 7th, 2018, which featured the only four-wide racing action on the schedule, at zMAX Dragway. Here we found our favorite home-built and licensed drag cars from the weekend.

Street Car Takeover is singularly focused on finding the fastest street cars in the country. There’s no discrimination against brand, make, or model, meaning we saw a 1969 C10 lined up next to late-model Caprices and a LS-powered Fox Body next to an Olds 442. The Charlotte event brought out the locals of course, but it also drew many from states away, looking to prove themselves as the nation’s fastest. Like Carlyle Racing from Ohio and YouTube celebrity Cleetus McFarland from Florida.

Presented nationally by Nitto Tire and locally by Kooks Headers and Exhaust, the event is like is mini Drag Week condensed into one day. Competition included three roll racing classes, street-car cruise-and-race drag classes, and well as 11 drag racing classes. Here we take a look at our favorite home-built Car Crafters.

The Whipple Gen-2 blower (same as a Cobra Jet), forged internals, and Stainless Works headers took the car to a best run of 9.19 e.t. at 151 mph in the 1/4-mile. Weighing in at 3,990 pounds, it makes admirable power. BMR Suspension and Viking shocks keep the Ford planted. The car was built and tuned by Competition Auto in Spring Lake, NC.

Unfortunately, Brandon—despite being hard on the brakes—broke out of his 9.50-index class early in the night.

Show Truck Turned Drag Truck
1969 Chevy C-10
Originally built as a show truck with 20s—which explained why this was one of the best painted vehicles in the pits—this 1969 C10 took a different direction a year ago. “I just got tired of going and sitting around at shows, so we thought we’d go drag racing and have some fun with it,” said owner Allen Austin. He called on Nigel Alexander at Brutal Speed and Tuning in Maiden, NC to build the truck. After the junkyard LS blew up, they built it stronger than before.

Nigel has the same 5.3L long-block set up in his LS-swapped Fox Body, with Wiseco BTR Boost pistons, K1 crank and rods, a BTR Stage-3 turbo cam, and Trick Flow TFS 220cc heads. An S475 Borg Warner makes around 20 pounds through a Holley high-rise intake. The truck runs on a stock computer. It’s backed by a Turbo 400 trans and its original rear end with an Eaton Posi, C-clip eliminator, and Moser axles.

The team had trouble most of the night, with their first run resulting in very little traction. They managed a 11.30 e.t at 128 mph, but says Allen, “we have a whole lot more there.” Trash in the fuel system ended their night after the first pass.

Land Of The Rising Sun
1990 Nissan 240SX
It’s not American muscle, but hear us out. This Nissan 240 has doubled its stock engine size and it certainly was one of the cleanest builds at the show. It’s powered by a 6.0L LQ4 that’s been punched out 0.30-over and features 11.1 pistons. Backed by a Powerglide transmission and Ford 9-inch with 28-spline axles, it sits on Jegs SSR wheels and 10.5-inch rear tires. A Holley Sniper EFI kits feeds the beast with 110 VP Racing fuel.

High-School Jewel
1968 Olds 442
One of our favorite cars from the event certainly wasn’t one of the fastest. This 12-second Olds was Mitch Hoover’s Senior Class project. He enlisted the help of his dad, who purchased this 1968 Oldsmoble 442 from a local ’70s drag racer, Glenn Majors in 1999. Glenn attempted to restore the car, but stopped before repainting the fender.

Mitch and dad rebuilt an Oldsmobile 455 pulled from a Toronado. It ran a best time of 12.6 e.t at 110 mph in the 12.00 1/4-mile index class. Mitch made it through the first round, but the second round was cut short due to time.

What are his future plans for the car? “Race it,” said Mitch. “People say it’s a sleeper, but I want to make it faster and leave it naturally aspirated. Eventually I’ll paint it back with its original drag-racing paint scheme.”

Cop-Car Chase
2014 Chevrolet Caprice PPV
Many did a double take on the drag strip when seeing a plane-jane cop car running them down. Tracey Holtzclaw’s Caprice is mostly stock, with 128,000 miles and the factory DOD. Picked up at a local Police auction, it promptly went under the knife with a stripped interior and 250-shot of nitrous. Then Kooks Headers and Exhaust long-tube headers, cat-less connection pipes, and 3-inch oval mufflers were installed, along with a ZL1 converter.

The wheel and tire setup is what Tracey calls his budget drag pack, costing him $750 used. The rear wheels are front wheels from a C5 Corvette with Mickey Thompson ET Street Rs measuring 305/45R17 and the fronts are GTO spares with Hoosier 27.5 front drag tires.

We saw Tracey hot lapping the old cop car most of the day during roll racing and 11.00 index 1/4-mile drags at night. He made it through the first round, but unfortunately his class was cut short due a late-running program and a track curfew.

The car normally runs high-10s, but Tracey and friends of the Carolina Holden car club, pulled timing to slow it down for a consistence 11.02 e.t.

The Pumpkin-Orange Camaro
1993 Chevy Camaro
Our favorite cars all seemed to run in the 1/8-mile races. This 1993 Camaro was Chris Clark’s first car. Chris has put four separate engines in the Camaro since he’s owned it. Currently, it features an LQ9 with a forged rotating assembly that’s been bored and stroked to a 408ci. It features Oliver Racing Rods, Mallory Pistons, and a Lunati crank.

Topped with Trick Flow Street 225cc heads, it gets its power from a Nitrous Express 250-shot plate system and NOS mini controller. The car runs on pump gas, but the wet shot is coupled with VP Racing Fuels C16.

Kooks Headers dump into a complete 3-inch exhaust. The stout LQ9 is backed by a Turbo 400 with an ATI trans brake, and a Moser 9-inch rear axle with 4:10 gears. The night’s class was a 1/8-mile no-time event, but the car has been a best of 6.30 at 114 mph.

With some tuning and a little more track time (this is one of the first runs in the car with its current set up) Chris plans on high 5-second e.t.s. The car was built by Tick Performance and Kooks Headers and Exhaust, and was tuned by JHR performance.

World’s Fastest
2017 Chevy ZL1 Camaro
Nick Robinson has barley had his license a year, but has plenty of seat time running the rounds of local circle tracks. Only 17, we found him turning laps in the open roll racing class in this 9-second ZL1 Camaro. Nick finished 5th with a best speed of 155 mph.

This 2017 Camaro ZL1 is far from home-built, but definitely a crowd favorite from the show. Claimed to be the fastest 6th-gen ZL1 in the world, it has a recorded best e.t. of 9.10 at 148 mph. After that run, the car received a new, yet-to-be-tested set up. It now features a bigger F1A94 Procharger with an air-to-water intercooler and forged bottom end. It makes 1,050 hp to the wheels, and even more with nitrous. Team members are secretive as to the exact amount of nitrous.

Owned and built by RPM Motorsports in Garner, NC, RPM says the ZL1 is stock from the firewall back, with the factory transmission, rear suspension and axles. The direct injection system features bigger injectors and a port-injection, which runs off the stock fuel pump.

The car gets 23 miles to the gallon, and according to RPM’s John Doc, “We drive it to the track, make a 5-second 1/8-mile hit, and drive home.” The new setup has yet to be run to its full potential, and the team only made one test and tune pass at the event. We think 8s are likely from this ZL1. Unofficially, it’s the third fastest 6th-Gen Camaro around, with its sights set on being the fastest.

The BMR suspension, Viking shocks, and Weld Aluma Star wheels give this Mustang a killer stance.This former show truck doesn’t carry lawn chairs anymore. Owner Allen Austin plans to continue dialing in the truck for the 10s.The owner of this 1990 Nissan 240sx originally ran a turbo-charged Nissan engine, before dropping it for the 6.0L LS. We like much better now too!It may have a rough exterior, but underneath is a fresh drivetrain with a rebuilt 455ci and 12-bolt. The car sat in a barn since 1999 until Mitch Hoover pulled it out for his Senior project.Tracey Holtzclaw is a part of the Carolina Holden club, which had a strong presence at the show.This Camaro’s drivetrain has changed multiple times. Next, Chris Clark plans on stealing his uncle’s Procharger from his Chrysler 300 top-speed car.Nick Robinson normally races NASCAR Super Late-Model cars, but the team at RPM Motorsports had him drive the ZL1 during the roll races. The street-car drags included a cruise, which the ZL1 handled with ease.